A powerful US veterans' lobby has mobilized to oppose a new medal for drone pilots. The move reiterates an earlier call in the Senate for the Pentagon to reduce the award’s designation.

America’s largest organization for combat veterans, Veterans of
Foreign Wars (VFW) – a 1.9-million-member nonprofit – has
expressed concern over the Pentagon's announcement last month that
it will begin awarding a new medal for drone warfare, one that is
ranked higher than the Purple Heart.

VFW Commander-in-Chief John Hamilton has urged its members to
support House and Senate bills that would lower the grade of the
new Distinguished Warfare Medal, approved last month by
then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The Pentagon ranked the new
award as the ninth-highest in the armed forces, ahead of the Bronze
Star and Purple Heart.

“We have many friends in Congress who agree 100 percent with
our position,” Hamilton said in a letter quoted by the Marine
Corps Times, adding “but the VFW needs you to get the other
members of Congress off their duffs.”

The VFW's announcement followed pressure by a bipartisan group
of 22 senators also urging the Pentagon to change the medal’s
designation. On Friday, the senators wrote to Secretary of Defense
Chuck Hagel, explaining their fears: “We believe that medals
earned in combat, or in dangerous conditions, should maintain their
precedence above non-combat awards,” the letter said, according
to Huffington Post.

That same view is shared by Hamilton, who explained that
“this is a policy disagreement over the placement of the new
medal, not whether drone operators, cyber warriors and others don’t
deserve to be properly recognized for the tremendous impact they
are bringing to the battlefield in real-time... The VFW just
adamantly believes that medals that can only be earned in combat
must rank higher than new medals awarded in the rear.”

The letter from the Senators concurred with the VFW's position,
saying that “The Distinguished Warfare Medal's placement
directly above the Soldier’s Medal – an award for bravery and
voluntary risk of life not involving conflict with an armed
enemy – diminishes the precedence given to acts of individual
gallantry in circumstances other than combat."

Last month, the 2.4-million-member American Legion, the nation’s
largest veterans' group, urged its members to file complaints about
the medal in future conversations with their representatives. Also
in February, VFW wrote a letter to Hagel requesting he change the
designation of the award.

In response to the wave of complaints Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel made the decision to put a hold on the production of the new
medals.

Hagel “heard their concerns,” spokesman George Little
said. “He's heard the concerns of others. And he believes that
it's prudent to take into account those concerns and conduct this
review.”

Hagel also asked General Martin Dempsey to lead the review of
the award's rank in comparison to other military medals.